Paradise Lost
by TomiStaccato
Summary: The most ancient of stories, at its heart raging passion, hope, and fear. The strange, new, and forbidden. Peeta is a primordial soul exiled to earth. As its only being, he explores this new world alone, until he finds a fitting companion to his loneliness in an earthen spirit whose voice haunts his dreams. This is Everlark as the first man and woman on earth, as Adam and Eve.


AN:

I'm back! Sort of. This was published last February for S2SL, but I'm publishing it now on ffn just to get my feet wet again in the HG fanfic world :D

The biblical version may be the most popular one, but it's not the only creation story. I took the liberty of combining elements from other creation stories to create my own version, 'cause when I put God and the snake into the smut-themed equation, I ran into all sorts of troubles. I hope you will give it a chance. The style is different from what you usually read from me, but experimenting is a good thing, right?

Many thanks to Streetlightlove for organizing this charity drive, to HGRomance for the prompt, and to Ro Nordmann for the banner (on the S2SL site).

**Paradise Lost**

I'm arrested by the colors of the sunset in this world. It's miniscule compared to my old home, less blue but more radiant. The sky is a gradient of softness, and I see unimpeded atop this mountain, up until the infinite distance. The air is cold. My skin reacts and I shiver. It is a sign of frailty of this body I adapted when I had been exiled. Mortal and easily wounded. I bristle at this reminder. I close my eyes and exhale. The air here, at least, is pure. When my eyes open, the vultures have begun their ascent from the plains below. I turn my back from the sky and trek back to the cave.

And I know _they_ watch me now. _They_, who have exiled me. Trapped me in this world uninhabited by nothing more than beasts, where plants are lovely and deadly and traitorous. But they fear this world. They fear its unknown depths. They fear the savage spirits who are cloaked by its oceans. And they expect me to break. After all, this is a game to them.

But the game had begun for me long ago. And I don't know when it will end.

* * *

><p>This body is a stranger to me; it's functions foreign and utterly peculiar. I harden in the morning, and I need to calm myself to be able to fulfill my tasks. Still, this body is useful.<p>

I rise at dawn, just before the sun ruptures the horizon. I have given up counting how many days I have been in this world. Perhaps hundreds. Perhaps thousands. The solitude is beginning to be a prison.

Outside the cave, the morning rain that has fallen gives off its scent. The dew is cold on my skin as the leaves graze my arms and thighs. I smell the air for prey. Then I run.

I hunt for my sustenance. I kill. I feed myself. I sleep.

The cycle repeats.

I hunt.

I kill.

I feed.

I sleep.

Tossing a shriveled log into the fire inside the cave, exhausted from another hunt, I think it may be the cycle that finally breaks me.

* * *

><p>I am running down a valley of towering stalks of grass. The rains had been relentless recently and I have not eaten in days. The wind sings in my ears. I chase deer, but I am competing with wolves. The field melts into a shadowy forest, where the clusters of leaves choke the sunlight. I pursue my prey but stumble.<p>

Suddenly the tracks disappear, and the howls of the wolves seem far. They scream of victory and blood, and I know that I am too late.

I kick a stone in frustration, my head bowed and my chest panting. I need to feed soon or I will die and _they_ will win.

I am tempted to eat the plants. The succulent berries gleam even in the shadows, just an arm's length from me. But I restrain. I may very well die from it.

Then I catch another scent, but it is different. It smells of honey and stale air.

There's a flurry in the air. An excitement. I turn, feeling someone watching me, feeling someone teasing and playing. A phantom laugh tickles my ear. There is no one though. There is no one else here in this vast earth but me.

But the feeling does not leave me. Could this be one of the spirits I was told to be wary of? Have they finally known that they now share the dominion of this earth with me?

Then air calms down, and I slowly stagger back to the cave, exhausted, craving sleep.

But right before I enter my dwelling, a song caresses me.

* * *

><p>The song permeates my dreams.<p>

It is disjointed and hollow at times, lonely, then exulting and inviting, and curiously, something in me lifts. It is my companion now, entering the solitude of my mind uninvited but not unwelcome.

And I feel I am not truly alone anymore. I start to forget how cold the night is in my world, how the stars seem within reach, a fat luminous cloud on a dark mantle. I miss my world less and less. I begin to accept my fate in this world more.

One day, an incredible urge builds in me to find this voice. But where? Then I shake the madness out of my head. I have known this might happen.

Maybe this is another trick from _them._

I try my hardest now to ignore the voice. I distract myself with pain, with angry scratches on my wrist from jagged stones.

But the melody is already inside me.

* * *

><p>The song slithers unstoppably between my flesh and bone, singing me to sleep at night and taking its bow as dawn rises. My mind has become as weak as my body. Against my better judgment, I seek out this voice. My mind has become restless, thinking and thinking and thinking, back to that day when I first heard the melody, that sad, lonely voice.<p>

I come across a spring one day in my search, tucked inside the dark forest where I lost my prey to the wolves. The pool is an infinite blue. Peaceful. Inviting. The gleam of the water pulls my feet to come nearer.

I take a step, but hesitate. Where has my reasoning gone? I may even have gone mad already, consuming the meat of this world's beasts.

But a soft breeze pushes me, urges me forward to the pool.

Suddenly, I am thirsty. Very thirsty. The need scorches down my throat. My knees bend involuntarily, and I am forced to crawl to the pool to satiate my thirst. My hand cups the water. I open my mouth, ready. I gulp, greedily.

The melody begins again, as though coming from the spring's center. This time it's louder. It's inside my head no longer.

I look over. I find the reflection to be not of my own but of a woman. Dark hair. Grey eyes. Haunting. Lovely. Lonely. Trapped in a water prison, the surface like undulating glass.

She pulls me in with her eyes. Now there will be a face to the song I dream about. She opens her mouth from beneath the rippling surface, as if to sing, her pale hands poised to break the water and take me to her.

I gasp and retreat hastily, frightened by what I have seen. I must not be fooled by her docility.

Then suddenly, her voice is magnified all around the forest. I look up, and the birds have reacted, embracing the melody as their own, echoing her song all around me. They break into flight, screeching.

I run, but I have no escape.

* * *

><p>So it is a she. So it is a woman. In my world, there is not much of a difference. Perhaps once, long ago, when we had needed to copulate to build our species, there was a tremendous difference. But now, now that we could easily clone ourselves, our desires have gradually ebbed and receded into the dark reflexes of our loins.<p>

I have not seen a woman in a very long time.

Then in my dream that night, as the rains whirl outside the cave, she is with me.

She walks up to me as I stand still, her hair a storm down her back, suiting the quicksilver of her eyes. Her hands reach out, touching the pulse at my neck. I shiver at our naked skin connecting. But her hands are warm. The sensation is welcome.

Her eyes don't break from mine. Her hands glide down my chest. I feel a twitch. I swallow.

Then her fingers curve around my cock. Her touch is like a feather's kiss. I close my eyes. My mind races at the foreign sensations. Her hands move in a rhythm. My desires start to burn. Her touch is my fuel. I swell and harden more. My very nerves are lit, her hands deft in their movements. Something warm builds inside my hips, ready to spring.

Then she stops. I open my eyes suddenly, choking at my loss.

She is gone.

_Free me_, she whispers from inside my mind, her beautiful voice evaporating into the sound of the rain.

* * *

><p>But she returns again, in my dreams. Always in my dreams.<p>

This time, it's her mouth on my cock.

I lie with my arms supporting me from behind. My neck muscles are rigid as her dark head moves forward and back, forward and back. Her nipples graze the inside of my thighs. I groan.

I am imprisoned by my desires for this woman. My reasoning has long since gone when she's present. I am losing my mind.

Her tongue plays with my tip and I hiss. She takes me in. Her warm mouth is bliss. I look at her as she recedes then moves again, her eyes anchoring mine. She draws everything out slowly, building the pleasure. But I never explode and fall freely. Just like tonight. Just like the other nights. She's always gone before I can jump from the precipice.

And she always entreats me to free her.

* * *

><p>Once more, I find myself in the forest. I think of it as her home. But now I limp as my blood cries from a wound I have sustained. The bear's claws have left tracks on my shoulder, the flesh pulsating from pain. My vision starts to darken and my senses heighten.<p>

_You have to live_, she says, her voice all around me again. It must be the blood loss, I think to myself, for I am very sure I'm not asleep. My mind is preparing for my end by giving me the one thing I desire most. I'm hallucinating.

_Come to the spring_, she urges.

No, this cannot be a dream.

_Who are you?_ I ask.

I stand still and wait for her reply, but the trees around me spin. The light bounces from the thick trunks. I feel my stomach contracting.

_Trust me, _came another whisper.

I stagger forward, smelling the water. My hand tries to stop the flow of blood, but the crimson seeps between my fingers, unstoppable. My strength, my life, is draining, dripping into the damp earth.

I reach for her, as the spring becomes bigger before my eyes. _Where are you? I need to see you._

I slump by the edge. I breathe out, exhausted. I am too weak.

All I could do to reach her was dip my arm into the water. My blood sails from my arms and into her spring.

* * *

><p>I feel the peace from a restful sleep. I feel heavy. I feel like the earth I lie on has finally claimed me, that my flesh has melted into it, returning to dust.<p>

But I also feel alive.

My ears hear the sound of my heart swimming from within my flesh. My skin also starts to stir. It feels a warm presence nearby.

But my eyes still refuse to open. My eyelids are pressed, clamped to my sockets. So I use my other senses. I inhale. The smell is familiar. Honey and stale air. My hands shake free. They glide along the earth.

Then they touch skin.

My eyes open. The light is harsh and I blink. But my hands have found their mark. A solid body, right next to me.

A miracle.

I sit up slowly and turn. The sight punches the air from my lungs.

It's _her._

She's no longer in my dreams. She's risen from her water dwelling.

She lies still, her head tilted towards me, resting on a bed of her wild hair. Her skin feels cold, and suddenly I'm gripped with fear. She shouldn't be like this. I'm alive, not anymore bloodied and weak, while she's motionless. What has she done?

_Save me,_ her voice comes to me from within my mind.

My hands caress her face. My fingers pad over her eyelids, down her straight nose, and my thumb wipes across her lips.

_How?_

_Love me._

_What?_

_Make love to me. Brand me as yours._

But I don't know what to do. The mechanics can be remembered from lessons in my memories, but the act is foreign.

_Love me_, she pleads, _or I will be lost._

No, I will not lose her.

I close my eyes and think again of her. In my mind she's alive and warm. Her eyes flutter from beneath flowering lashes. The lights from the fire of the cave dance on her skin.

I have decided.

I open my eyes again and lean towards her. My nose skims the arch of her jaw, all the way to the curve of her ear. I whisper, _you need to stay with me._

My lips trail her neck in soft kisses. My desire for this woman blooms as our bodies start to touch.

I pull back and look at her, from the dip in her collarbone, down the silky peaks of her breasts. I touch her there, my palm connecting with her dusky nipples. My fingers play, kneading them softly. They begin to harden, they respond, she responds, finally, to my touch.

But it is not enough.

My hands pull away in a languid caress, trekking downward. The patch of dark hair points south, covering the key to her.

_Love me_, her voice comes again, pleading. I look at her still face, her inanimate body, waiting to be brought to life.

I part her legs with my hands. I feel a wetness at its juncture. My fingers trace slowly her opening, gliding upward to a small, hard kernel. I rub, entranced, curious. She's slick. I begin to smell her desires, too.

My heart races in awe at this newness, at what this promises. I want to hear her sing to me.

I lean again and kiss her, this time on her plump lips. I can feel the soft puff of moistness, a small breath. My hope spikes. My cock stands erect.

I angle her hips. I enter her, ridge by ridge, her warmth sliding around me. Once I am buried in her, I close my eyes.

_Move inside of me_, she commands.

And I obey her. Nothing else matters now but this. I move, my hips slowly snapping forward. My cock retreats then enters, surrenders then charges again. She's a paradise I will lose myself in. I build my momentum, tightening my grip on her. I look at her for any sign of life. I kneel and slant forward, the madness and the pleasure mingling. I am on fire. My hips don't stop penetrating her in a steady rhythm. A moan hums from my tight lips. Her body moves as I push. Then I see the precipice, that which she had cruelly denied me so many nights ago. I welcome it. I run to it, my pace now relentless. My pleasure thunders through me in a surge of electricity and I explode inside her. My cry leaps from my throat.

Then she wakes. Her lids jump open. She gasps. Her eyes. Her eyes are grey and bright, as though the moon has shed its very skin to envelop them. Her hands squeeze my wrists.

I look at her beautiful face, entranced. Her skin is flushed. Her breasts sway. She, too, convulses in her pleasure. She keens, her hips bucking. She looks at me. We're still connected and my head bows as I weaken, all my energy pouring into her.

She's here. I've found her. I've saved her.

* * *

><p>I take her to the cave, and there we lie on a bed of fur I've skinned from a mountain animal. She still feels cold, so we're wrapped in each other. I'm still spent from earlier.<p>

"There's an easier way to regain your strength," she says, as if reading my mind, her voice barely audible.

I tuck her head beneath my chin and kiss her hair, the move surprising me. There are many things I desire to do with her that surprise me.

"What is it?" I ask, indulging her.

"Make love to me again," she says.

I pull slightly away.

But she's earnest. Her honesty is in her eyes.

"Why?" I ask. Not that I don't want to, but I'm unsure if I can even move as I did earlier.

"Doesn't matter," she brushes my question aside as she positions herself astride me. Her warm core is only inches from my cock.

I'm incredulous. And slightly fearful. I try to rise.

"Shhh," she says, pushing me back with her fingers on my lips. "You're new to this world, and you don't know its ways. You only know yours. Let me show you how wonderful mine can be."

She leans back and opens her legs slowly. My eyes fall towards her dark center. It's glistening again. I swallow. She touches my cock and I feel myself harden once more. She strokes me, readying me. She closes her eyes as she swivels my cock around her center. She guides me, my tip grazing her moist lips. It's a torture, especially now that I know how it feels to be inside her. She's teasing me again. But this time, she's equally imprisoned by her own desires. She moans deeply as she moves me up and down her folds and I can't take it. I grip her hips, trying to angle her and speed things along. I can't wait to be inside her again.

She opens her eyes. We're both panting. Her hand leaves my cock. She leans and kisses me, her hand touching my chin. I can smell her. She's heady. She's very ready.

She kisses me again, this time our lips part and our tongues meet. Once again it's a foreign move for me. But she's patient, and I learn quickly, my throbbing desire momentarily forgotten at this new avenue of pleasure. My hands move to the curve of her waist. My thumb grazes the underside of her breast.

Then she pushes me back. She returns to her earlier position, leaning back and spreads herself again. This time her hips go up, then they slowly settle on me, sheathing me again, and I almost howl my relief.

She rides me. She's magnificent. Her chest heaves as she takes deep breaths. I watch her, mesmerized. Her eyes are closed. Her lips are parted. She moves faster and faster. She starts to make the guttural noises that herald her climax. She touches her own breasts. I feel a tingling in my own spine. She's relentless. Our joined bodies thrum. I encourage her, and thrust my own hips up to meet her.

Then she shrieks. I also cry out. Our ecstasy strong as the force that keeps the stars apart. She falls into me, convulsing again. My arms go around her. I pull her closer to me and kiss her forehead as she settles again.

The ways of her world are wonderful, indeed.

* * *

><p>I drift in and out of her in the minutes, hours, and days. We're joined. We part to catch our breaths. Then we dive in together again, riding our pleasures in waves. I shout and shudder and spill into her and she sings sweetly for me. Our tongues whirl and our hands wander. We touch and seek each other's sighs. We sleep and dream, and even in our sleep we are united. My joy comes from making her weak with my hips's rolling motions, uncoiling her. My strength returns and increases as I rest in her warmth and wetness. She offers herself to me, and I surrender to her completely.<p>

* * *

><p>And I should have known we would not be left in peace.<p>

My people have contacted me, letting me know my punishment is over. But I know why they have called. They know what we have created. A new race. They fear it, just as they feared this world, just as they feared its mother who resided in the watery depths.

But my fear is that they can recall me. When their paranoia has spilled from their minds unhampered, they will send for me. I don't sleep. I can't think. I fear everyday that it will be the day we part.

Until she gives the solution.

She approaches me one day, a red fruit in hand. An apple. Plump and fragrant, promising sweetness.

I stare at her. I look at her growing belly, at the child inside we have created.

"Eat this," she says, handing me the fruit. "And you will belong to the earth, to this world, and they can't take you from me," she promises.

I do not hesitate to take a bite.

* * *

><p>AN: Thanks for reading! :D Please do let me know what you think, I would really appreciate it :D<p> 


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